Chapterhouse Battles Eyjafjallajökull, Postpones North American Tour

Indie/shoegaze fanatics who’d wept salty tears of absolute joy at the news last year of Chapterhouse’s decision to reunite for a world tour have had those happy tears take a decidedly unhappy turn as the band was forced to postpone this week’s North American dates because guitarist/vocalist Stephen Patman was stuck in Japan following a handful of triumphant shows. In an official statement, the band made it clear that while Mother Nature and American red tape may have won this round, the wall of guitars would eventually emerge victorious.

Due to the recent volcanic activity in Iceland Chapterhouse have been forced to reschedule their upcoming tour of North America. The disruption to international flights caused by the ash cloud left Stephen stranded in Japan. Although the earliest flight earmarked for his return to the UK was May 3rd, he managed to get a standby ticket and returned on monday evening. However, this caused him to miss his interviews at the American Embassy, so there is no hope him obtaining a US artist visa in time for the shows.

We are all extremely disappointed that this is our only course of action, but wish to stress that the tour is being postponed, not cancelled. We are currently working hard with the promoters in order to find the best time to reschedule the shows, keeping them at the same venues with the same line ups. Any fans with tickets will be able to use them for the replacement shows. Due to Ashley’s commitments with his other band ‘Tunng’, the new shows are likely to be in the second half of September. We will confirm these dates as soon as possible.

The band are very upset about this turn of events and would like to convey their sympathy and apologies to everyone that will be affected, but on a more positive note, we intend to add a couple of dates to the rescheduled tour. Please bear with us. We look forward to playing the US in a few months time.

Rather than slipping into a deep funk over the news, let’s remind ourselves why the tour was such an exciting proposition in the first place with a few YouTube videos, both from the band’s initial flurry of shimmering brilliance, and from a recent live show which proves definitively why it’s worth staying excited all summer long for the rescheduled dates.

Crispin Kott is a father, writer/editor, drummer and gadfly living in Brooklyn, NY. You can find some of his published professional work unprofessionally archived at crispinkott.blogspot.com